This plugin hasnt been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

BookingBug Online Booking & Appointment Widget

Description

The Booking Platform For All Businesses

No matter what your business type, BookingBug is the perfect tool for taking bookings, appointments and managing staff schedules online.

This plugin allows for easy and quick embedding of your BookingBug widget either in the sidebar of your WordPress site, or in a blog post using a shortcode.

BookingBug is a highly flexible and customizable booking system for use by any business. It is designed to help you attract new customers by displaying your time and availability on your own site, as well as on other online platforms such as your Facebook business page. You can embed your widget into your WordPress site quickly and easily and the availability and booking information is always live and up to date.

If you are a web developer looking for deeper customisation, you can edit the CSS of the booking pages and forms to create a seamless and personalised user experience for your clients.

Types of businesses

BookingBug is completely customisable to match the way your business works and can handle a broad range of business types:

For more examples see here – https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bookingbug/other_notes

Key BookingBug Features

Easy to set up and customise : Set up and take bookings, enquiries, and reservations, so that your schedule works the exact way you want it to.

Take payments or deposits online in a number of currencies : BookingBug is integrated with numerous payment providers from around the world, such as Paypal, Google Wallet, Sage Pay and many other payment systems.

Run offers and promotions : Offer group payments, discounts, coupons, bulk bookings, packages, and even wallets that allow people to pay in bulk – any way you need to offer your service to your customers.

Run daily deals : If your business runs daily deals, you can use your dedicated widgets for managing and redeeming daily deals codes on any platform. Simply import all of the codes, track redemptions, manage capacity, and even offer different time and service availability for different deals.

Set variable/complex pricing : Change your price for different times of day, days of the week, weeks of the year, or specific time periods – whatever best suits the way your business operates.

Automated confirmations, appointments and reminders : Send fully personalised email and SMS confirmations, for reminders and follow-ups. Get your own dedicated two-way SMS number for full connectivity with your customers. If you’re a web developer, you can offer extra value by completely customising the experience.

A range of advanced add-ons : Scales from the smallest and simplest businesses up to enterprise-level complex businesses. Even businesses with multiple locations, staff, resources and hundreds of services can easily be managed when using BookingBug.

Customisable question and booking forms : Add any required customer questions to the booking process. Customise confirmations and add you own terms and conditions.

Android and iPhone apps : Keep track of your new and upcoming bookings and appointments on the go. Also stay in touch with your customers and create new appointments.

Data analysis and reporting tools : BookingBug Insights is available on all plans and offers advanced data analysis and reporting tools to give you the power to analyze your customer, booking, sales and staff information to better understand, manage and grow your businesses efficiently.

Integrated suite of marketing tools : Have the means to develop and disseminate online and mobile marketing communications to help you build customer loyalty, win new business, improve retention, upsell new services, encourage word-of-mouth recommendations and much more.

Sign-up now for free

You can sign up to BookingBug at http://www.bookingbug.com. Our free WordPress version lets you embed a basic booking widget in your WordPress site.

To benefit from BookingBug’s full range of advanced functionality, take a look at our standard plans – starting at just $19.95 / £14.95 per month, here.

Customise Your Widget

BookingBug lets you control how you display your widgets in your WordPress site:

Simple-to-use options allow you to adjust the size and colours of your widgets so that they match your WordPress site’s appearance. Complete customisation of the widget and booking form can also be achieved through CSS.

The single widget can show just a subset of your services, for example :

The availability calendar of specific rooms in your B&B – so you can build widgets for each room

The availability of a specific person, such as a trainer or teacher

The times and dates of a group of classes or courses, such as all upcoming dance classes of a specific style

A single event widget can show just a single service, a single resource, group of classes, or a single one-off event

Our Support Team is Standing By To Help

If you are having difficulties using this plugin, please take a look at our help article here.

Business Types

BookingBug is the ideal scheduling solution for a broad range of business types. You can see some examples for different business types below:

Enterprise and Governments

BookingBug can also be used by large organisations and the public sector organisations looking to build an element of multi-channel appointment scheduling into their established workflow. Such as retail, telecoms and banking and finance.

If you would like to find out more information then please contact – sales@bookingbug.com.

Screenshots

Customer example - Jessops

Customer example - One Education

Customer example - Tower Hamlets Tennis

Customer example - Waitrose

Intuitive controls means anyone with an iPad can make a booking

Manage your bookings on the go through the use of our app

The mobile app means you can check your bookings anywere at anytime

View and manage your bookings in a clear and easy to use dashboard

Installation

There are two methods of installation, depending on your set-up. The first one is more straightforward, but if this does not work, then please try the second method.

Method 1 : Installation through WordPress control panel.

Log into your WordPress account using the administrator’s username and password.

Click Plugins > Add New from the left menu.

At the top right corner of your page, click Install Plugins.

This will take you to a search page. In the search box, type ‘bookingbug’ and click Search Plugins.

The BookingBug plugin should then appear at the top of the list. Click Install on the right-hand side.

When this plugin has installed, you will need to click Activate to activate this plugin.

Method 2 : Downloading the PHP plugin file

In your BookingBug account, navigate to Publish > WordPress Plugin

Click the Download PHP plugin and download the attached zipped plugin

Log into your WordPress account using the administrator’s username and password.

Click Plugins > Add New from the left menu.

Click Upload a new plugin and browse to your downloaded plugin

Click Activate at the bottom of the plugin.

Your now ready to integrate your BookingBug widget in your WordPress site

BookingBug Sidebar Widgets

To place your installed plugin into the sidebar as a widget:

Log into your WordPress site account

Click Appearance > Widgets from the left menu

The BookingBug widget should now be under Available Widgets if it has installed successfully. You can now 1. click and drag the widget to the right to where you would like to place it under Sidebar.

Log into your BookingBug account. Copy the BookingBug ID code from the top-right corner of the page.

Back on the WordPress page, under BookingBug ID, paste the BookingBug ID you had just copied. You can also 1. change the title of your widget here.

Click Save.

You can also chose to use a widget for just a single service instead of your entire calendar. You can find this option in your BookingBug account under Publish > Single Widgets.

Usage in a post

In any post or static page on your blog, you can use the shortcode to directly embed a BookingBug widget in your site:
1. Log into your BookingBug account
1. Under Publish, you can either choose either Customize Widgets or Single Widgets. You will then find a Show WordPress Shortcode button, which will then generate a pre-built shortcode for your blog, customized to your style and design

The basic parameters are :

id=’xxx’ – Your BookingBug ID (as displayed in the top right corner when logged into BookingBug) or with widget id of a single service that you offer under Publish->Single Widgets in BookingBug

palette=’yyy’ – An optional Palette. Create and save a palette under ‘smart widgets’ and use the palette name to skin your widget to your site

style=’large’ – A style of widget, the options are :

“large” : A large 730 * 570 widget for a full screen entry

“medium” : A narrower 570 * 570 widget

“medium-small” : A 440 * 570 widget – fits in most blogs

“small” : A very small 180 * 240 widget for sidebars

“wide” : A wide, but not very high widget that is 730 * 240

e.g.
[bookingbug id=’ukw12345′ palette=’custom’ style=’medium-small’]

FAQ

Do I need a BookingBug account

Yes. Creating a BookingBug account is quick and simple at http://www.bookingbug.com. Once you have done so, you can then configure your bookings and availability and embed your widget on your WordPress site.

Do I have to pay to use the WordPress BookingBug widget?

No, you can use either the free plan or a paid plan with WordPress. However, to benefit from BookingBug’s full range of advanced functionality (such as full widget customisation, online payment options, and advanced functionality), take a look at our paid plans, starting at just $19.95/£14.95 per month.

What kind of bookings can you take?

BookingBug is a flexible system, so you can take bookings on an appointment basis, by day, by week, or take bookings for courses, classes, recurring and one-time events. If you’re not sure which one fits you, you can chat online to us at http://www.bookingbug.com.

Can I take online payments?

Yes, you can take payments or just deposits online, using merchants like Paypal or Google Wallet. If you’re interested in taking payments but don’t have any of our service providers set up, contact us and we’ll be happy to talk you through the various merchant account options available in your region.

Can I customize the widget?

BookingBug widgets are designed to be completely customisable. You can set the size and 9 different colours as a basic option, and for advanced users, complete CSS customisation is available for your site
You can also control what widget is shown. For example, a complex business with many services might show different services on separate pages. A site for holiday cottages could show different location widgets on different pages, while the main page still shows the availability for all cottages.

Can I embed the widget elsewhere?

Yes, you can embed your widget simultaneously on WordPress, your own site, your Facebook page or anywhere else that allows widgets to be embedded. You can also host your widget on its own BookingBug Business Page – a dedicated simple web page you can share with your customers.

I need more help! Where can I contact support?

If you require more detailed help then please visit our knowledge base, which has lots of help articles and video tutorials – here.

Reviews

It is no info about pricing on site, and when sign big form and send it, then receive next )))
Thanks for your interest in BookingBug.
BookingBug has recently sunset its SME version and are no longer accepting new customers. We will be launching a new lightweight version in the near future. An alternative to our sunset SME version, you can opt for our Enterprise version which starts at $2,000 per month and includes robust integrations such as Salesforce, Outlook and GMail.

I've used this for about a year now. Yes, it can be a bit complex to set up initially, but the support is fantastic and they'll help every step of the way.
I'm far from a professional web designer. I built my own site simply because I couldn't afford a $4,000 site. I pay, on average, about $25 per month for BB. It sends out a text and email as soon as someone books an appointment, then it sends them a reminder 24 hours before their appointment, another one an hour before. After the appointment, it sends a follow up email a day later and another one a week later.
It's too bad that others haven't taken the time to fully understand all of the wonderful benefits of BookingBug. I hate seeing that it's got such a low rating!
This is an absolutely wonderful application and if you'd like to see it working, visit my page at: www.mysnowwhiteteeth.com . Click on the Book Online option.
Please don't allow the derogatory comments to deter you from using this plugin. It works, it's not simple, but you can't expect a good program to be completely simple to set up. But I will say, it's completely worth it.

This system is EXTREMELY especially where it counts, which is the money. It does provide a ton of options that most systems don't but at this point I'm looking for another system that is not so buggy and can work on my customers' mobile devices.
I would have stayed but support is just terrible. Sometimes I wait 2 to 3 weeks for someone to answer just one ticket and you can't call for support even if you are on a paid plan.
They also don't let you remove their logos despite you paying for the system.

Everything is a struggle with this system. I've been using it for 14 months and every step of the way it's been torture. I'll be moving on to a new system as soon as I can get all the customer data downloaded.
The setup is way too complicated, and unless you are on the expensive plans, they do not offer any kind of phone support. The email support is shoddy beyond belief, in fact I've been dealing with a simple issue for over 2 weeks which shows no sign of resolution, purely because my agent is too incompetent or poorly trained to understand the situation, in spite of it being explained multiple times.
Do yourself a favour and go somewhere else. If you find somewhere good, let me know and I'll be right behind you.
Nathan